The Demon Within Read Online Free Page B

closer. The measurements were off. The interior of was at least a third smaller than the outside. There was another room, possibly another entrance.
    The floors were seamless. No dirt, twigs or leaves tossed inside from rough weather. No animals, rodents or even those pesky bugs were anywhere to be found as if sensing something she couldn’t.
    That left the walls.
    She studied the jagged entrance, reaching out to touch the stone. The edges weren’t faded from the sun. Mortar that should’ve long since disappeared under the elements crumbled between her fingers. “This entrance was just made.”
    Oscar looked up, and studied the wall. His lips pruned as if ready to spit. He hadn’t noticed. The white, thinning hair on his head bounced when he nodded. “Agreed. They wanted us here. Find out why.”
    While they worked, Caly tried to figure out what they hoped to gain by trapping them in this spot. But what concerned her more was the possibility of a second entrance. She needed to find it and fast. It could either be an important escape hatch or a weakness they couldn’t afford.
    To say it was unpleasant to be surprised by a demon would be an understatement. Caly had seen the aftermath when she was a newbie on cleanup detail early in her training. It’d taken her days to get the smell out of her nose and months for the nightmares to end.
    She ran her hands along the walls, searching for the slightest cracks.
    A sound came from behind the altars.
    Moving cautiously, Caly knelt on the unforgiving floor and pressed her ear against the icy wall. At the contact, the temple seemed to leech the warmth from her soul. Just when she would’ve pulled back, she heard it.
    A scuffling noise.
    She shifted her stance and crouched lower. A low grinding of stone against stone came from behind the wall. A shiver of dread danced down her spine, and she groped for the four-inch blade from the vest across her chest.
    With quick prayer that she was wrong, she scraped the metal across the wall. The rock façade flaked away, leaving behind an ugly gap.
    The stones were shifting.
    Something wanted out.
    When she would’ve called out her finding, awareness plowed through her. Heat rushed up her hands and spread to her chest. Something was close and getting closer, moving fast.
    She jerked her head up and turned toward the opening of the temple. The gloom of fading light slowly crept along the stones like an animal on the hunt.
    A shadow danced in the opening.
    “Head’s up.” The blade flew from her hand before she processed the command. It sailed end over end, passing within inches from Oscar’s ear and landed with a heavy thump directly into the chest of a demon.
    There was no way to adequately describe the sound when a demon died. The noise swelled like a squeal from a wounded pig. In a bright flash like when gunpowder ignited, the demon vanished. A sugary sweet smell similar to antifreeze filled the air as hellfire burned away their remains. In the sudden silence, all you heard was the weapon clatter to the floor. The only thing that remained was dark burn marks on the scarred stone.
    Metal usually only slowed a demon down. It was the iron built into her blades that killed with a single touch. That and beheading were the only surefire ways to kill demons.
    Still crouched behind the altars, she pulled out a second knife in the hope of buying the men some time as they scrambled for cover.
    “Oscar, the room has a second entrance.”
    He grunted. “Guard it. Henry and I will watch the front. We must stand firm until daylight.”
    Demons had limitless energy while in their domain of darkness. The battle would last all night or until the team ran out of weapons. To prove her words, a demon materialized near the entrance.
    The foot soldiers conserved their energy for fighting, the demons not even bothering to pretend to be human. They usually didn’t if they had no intention of letting their prey live. The emaciated husk was a sickly